The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County, New York on Sunday, claims that Lemon assaulted Dustin Hice at a bar in Sag Harbor in July 2018. Hag said he recognized Lemon at the location and offered to buy the television host a drink, according to the lawsuit. Although Lemon declined the offer, the host later approached Hice and allegedly assaulted him. Lemon placed his hands down his pants and “vigorously [rubbed] “his genitalia,” the lawsuit alleges....

Acosta discussed the recent fighting and the Taliban’s territorial gains with CNN host Fareed Zakaria and both expressed surprise at how quickly the situation in the country is deteriorating The Taliban has now gained control of vast swathes of Afghanistan, including the cities of Kandahar and Herat, which are the two largest after Kabul. The U.S. and U.K. have sent reinforcements to the capital to assist with the evacuation of personnel....

The former Obama administration official likened Youngkin to the highly transmissible variant of the virus, which emerged over the summer, before the polls closed on Tuesday night. “The stakes are high. When this election is over in Virginia, we will know… have we seen the emergence of the Delta variant of Trumpism? The Delta variant of Trumpism,” Jones said. “In other words, Youngkin, same disease, but spreads a lot faster and can get a lot more places....

What were we expecting to see? There were too many of us for him to shake all of our hands, and there might have been a few in the assembly he’d rather not greet. We stood there, anyway, certain he would need to come through this Superdome tunnel to exit the Duke press conference that followed the Blue Devils’ 81-77 loss to archrival North Carolina. His players left immediately after they were done speaking with the media, but Krzyzewski lingered behind the walls and curtains, presumably greeting the many family members who’d gathered to listen to him speak as Duke head coach one final time....

The Colorado Avalanche winger, who earlier in the year served a five-game suspension for boarding and injuring Niklas Kronwall, boarded and injured Jonas Brodin on Friday. McLeod was given a five-minute major and ejected from the game; the Minnesota Wild defenseman left with an apparent injury. It was a dirty, dangerous hit by a repeat offender, and it deserves a suspension. Not much else to say, other than Brodin didn't need a stretcher to get off the ice, like Kronwall did....

The NCAA adopted a temporary policy on a student athlete’s name, image and likeness (NIL) that allows students to have endorsement deals, compensation for coaching, autographs and leveraging social media for pay, among a few other things. The BYU press release outlined that athletes can receive compensation for NIL activities within fair market value, but they cannot promote or be endorsed by any companies that promote anything outside of the “BYU Honor Code Standards,” which includes alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult entertainment and, yes, even coffee....

When you combine those factors, more than often not, it’s a license to print money. Covington looked to be well on his way to becoming one of the next big stars for the organization when he became the first UFC fighter to appear at the White House, meeting with President Donald Trump. But then the wheels came off the tracks in Covington’s mind. He says the UFC wanted to book him vs....

The Cowboys wide receiver was back to field a punt with less than two minutes remaining in the game Sunday against the Giants. With Dallas down 27-20 and out of timeouts, Beasley was looking to give the offense solid field position for a potential game-tying drive. He forgot about catching the ball first. MORE: Best photos from Week 7 | Cowboys vs. Giants box score This is the face of a man who sees his team’s hope of winning bouncing away....

The Bucs’ 2014 rotation, however, is far from a lock to post another top-five ERA. A.J. Burnett took his National League-leading strikeout rate and wicked curve to Philly. Francisco Liriano eviscerated hitters last year, but has yet to log back-to-back great seasons during his eight-year career. Charlie Morton mauls righties with his turbo sinker, but turns every lefty he faces into Shin-Soo Choo. Wandy Rodriguez is 35 and has an arthritic left elbow....

On Wednesday, Cowherd said he was “shocked” ESPN would punch down at the smaller FS1, especially on the same day ESPN’s “O.J.: Made in America” landed the company’s first Oscar nomination (for best documentary). MORE: ESPN’s Sarina Morales ready to play hardball against FS1 Said Cowherd to partner Kristine Leahy on Wednesday’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” (around the two-minute mark of the video below): “I do know that really, really good people from my former employer were Oscar-nominated yesterday for ‘O....

This week, ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd provided a reminder of one of the more significant challenges that Martínez, his fellow Dominicans and all foreign-born Latinos have had to encounter in pursuit of their big league dreams: The casual racism amongst members of the English-language sporting press. MORE: How ESPN personalities fared after they left | Baseball’s All-Cuban team | ESPN boots Cowherd off air Cowherd demonstrated this on his radio program Thursday in defending Miami Marlins’ Dan Jennings from those critical of the job Jennings has been doing as Marlins manager....

No. 11 Iowa State (12-2 SU, 6-5 ATS) at No. 22 Baylor (12-3 SU, 6-4 ATS) Line: Baylor -2, Total: 135 This looks to be a highly competitive matchup between two evenly matched conference opponents. While each is close in skill-level, they have different schools of thought in how to get it done. Iowa State is second in the nation in assists per game, top-15 in scoring, and shoots 49 percent from the field....

Line: UNC -8 Total: 147 The Don Best/Linemakers Power Ratings have North Carolina tied for sixth nationally and 16 points better than Wake Forest on a neutral court. The Tar Heels (14-4 SU, 10-8 ATS) have won three straight and eight of nine. They’ve found ATS success much harder to come by lately at 0-4 in their last four, with the most recent a 68-53 home win over Virginia Tech on Sunday as 22-point favorites....

The Jayhawks return guard Lagerald Vick and big man Udoka Azubuike, making them the Big 12 favorites. Kentucky, Gonzaga and Duke and Virginia round out the top five teams. MORE: Sporting News’ Big 12 predictions Elsewhere, Nevada is No. 7 after its Sweet 16 trip last season, while Auburn begins the campaign at No. 11 — the first time the Tigers have started a season in the top 25 since 2000....

They don’t seem to care much for pedestrians here, and I’ve got witnesses. This exercise, what we call the Way Too Early Top 25, may be a bit less hazardous to one’s health, but certainly not to one’s peace of mind. Here’s what we don’t know about next season: We don’t know who will turn pro, who will transfer, and where those transfers might land. The No. 1 player from the No....

This week, our strategy is to go heavy on Western Kentucky Hilltoppers when constructing DraftKings lineups. WKU QB Brandon Doughty is a must-own because the North Texas defense is so bad. In FanDuel, we are able to afford WKU’s Jared Dangerfield by dropping from our man Greg Ward Jr. to Doughty. Remember, the full daily fantasy CFB Playbook previewed below is part of Fantasy Alarm’s DFS Playbook PRO package, which includes Playbooks for NFL, NBA and MLB games at all the major DFS sites....

However, Oklahoma has also received its fair share of headlines, largely thanks to a series of astonishing performances from Jalen Hurts. Amid all of this, Louisiana State University has largely flown under the radar. That it has done so and for so long it’s extremely surprising, given the Tigers have won the first three games by a combined 165-55 scoreline. LSU has already beaten No. 12 ranked Texas on the road—the Aggies were ranked ninth at the time—and now ranks fourth in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and a spot lower in the coaches poll....

The Sporting News conducted an eight-team college fantasy football draft last week, and the first eight picks were quarterbacks. How loaded is the position? Three QBs were taken before reigning Heisman Trophy winner and national champion Jameis Winston. The SEC produced the most picks in the draft with 16. The rest of the conference breakdown looked like this: ACC (13), Pac-12 (12), Big Ten (10), Big 12 (8), Independent (4), AAC (3), Conference-USA (2), MWC (2), MAC (1), Sun Belt (1)....